Mums forced into office by big UK company?

[MM90]

I work for a big, well-known company. The bosses are considering plans to force all colleagues to come to the office 3 days a week. They are thinking about checking our turnstile data individually and disciplining anyone who doesn’t come in for 3 days every week, whether they need to be there or not. I thought this was the 21st century where working women have the chance to create a sensible work / life balance so long as they perform in their job. My line manager gave me a great performance rating during Covid. I have two children under 5 and no family nearby. Any thoughts on this?

Almost 48 hours and the OP still hasn't come back...........

What's the issue, as long as they aren't changing your hours? Your location doesn't really effect childcare as you should have childcare in place for when you are working.

I have tried to change this from women and can't work out how. I meant people as it applies to everyone who makes a flexible working request to work from home. They have to put the request in writing and then I will have a discussion with them. Asking about caring. Commitments of Amy Lind is part of that discussion along with questions around a confidential space , having the correct set up, health and safety concerns and evidence that they have insurance to cover working form home. How they think it will affect their performance either negatively or positively . It isn't just about child care but about the whole working from home scenario and how it will fit into the team. Responsibility for staff welfare doesn't stop because your employee is working from home. I ah e had to deal with Thia on numerous occasions some applications are successful some are not .

It is not about creating community in life but those conversations in the kitchen over a coffee help resolve issues identify problems. It is all part of being a team. It is difficult to maintain that team when you are all Sat separately with no contact other than a screen.

What is this insurance? I’ve never been asked about that and I work for a large organisation with a very good risk and compliance function.

I suppose it depends what you do but a lot of home insurance policies will be invalidated of you work from home , so anyone working from home has to confirm they have informed their insurance companies and they are aware of the change. For example we have confidential paper files which could be a fire hazard . I know I had to inform my insurers and they gave me a letter confirming they were aware

I think your HR team are a bit confused.com

Hone insurance won’t be invalidated unless a person is running their own business from home.

www.confused.com/home-insurance/guides/working-from-home-insurance

Home insurers will not care in the slightest about some extra paper and they will definitely not want the admin headache of issuing certificates of cover to every office worker who works from home.

It’s sounding a bit like it, and 2 days later still no further explanation from OP!

I always understood that you work from home, doing an office-type role. However, you can’t gave people coming to your house, or work on equipment, manufacture etc. This needs extra/different insurance.

Of course you should have childcare in place. Yet I would say looking at some of the threads of MN that at least 50% dont. They just hope they arent caught. They are never around at certain times. They will pop up but only when they know the coast is clear. I worked with a couple of women like this.

As a Team leader I need people to jump on a call if there was a client issue. Guess who wasnt ever available. Usual excuses. I was working on a proposal. I was on another calll that went on for a long time or the favourite stand by. I was at the dentist!

same in our place - just back from dentist - cleared with my boss - my other colleague that i work side by side knew too, will work it back later on. But we have that flexibility which is great

Agreed. In fact I'd have thought that insurers would prefer home (office) workers because you are home more, and not leaving an empty house all day.

50%?! That's a hyperbolic claim to put it mildly. I've never met anyone who doesn't have childcare while they work from home - except for some with older children who are capable of sorting themselves out for maybe 60-90 minutes post school.

Most people I know who tried to work with kids at home during Covid would never EVER go back to that because it was an absolute nightmare.

Please elaborate your “sigh”

Have a look at some of the threads on here, stuffed full of posters WFH with young children

I also count children under about 9 as too young for WFH. I don't believe the posters who claim to have 4-8 year olds entertaining themselves without any need for parental input or screens.

And I also think a lot of posters double count - oh it's only for an hour or so till I finish up, okay but if you also didn't use breakfast club and dropped your child off at 9, you're working a considerably shorter day.

Yup, I think there may be an element of not getting the expected answer. For my part, I agree with previous posters who have asked who is looking after the children under 5 while the OP is at work? This is the exact reason I asked people to come into the office. Pre-covid, working from home often generated higher productivity for teams. Post covid, the opposite is true and, in my experience, productivity dropped massively when people were allowed to work from home.

I was always an advocate of flexible working, but not any longer. The few spoil it for the many.

@spriots I do think 4-8 is a very grey area.
Couple of hours afterschool watching TV etc or if they are able to go out to play locally with friends is probably OK.
Or a day when they are off school ill and not feeling great.

But I wouldn't think it's fair for them to be stuck in the house all day during school holidays. I think kids under about 12 would get bored and need stimulation.

Also depend if siblings get on or if they bicker.

That's shocking but i am glad to say mine did work 8 hours because i was there with them doing the job and if they were too busy nipping out for a cig or scrolling on their phones they wouldn't have been able to finish their tasks. I wasn't a slave driver but i expected 60 minuets work for every 60 minutes pay. My staff were let off early if we had finished the job, had their lunch provided and were paid well above the minimum wage and anyone who needed to worked school hours, term time only.

I'm amazed anyone can get work done at home without interruption by young DC. I could not sit for 5 minutes without someone needing me and as soon as I answered a phone call they would pester me non stop.

WFH doesn’t automatically mean children are at home!! Most of us use childcare.

Wow I'd love to get paid just to do 3 hours a day. I'd more than double my salary!!

Only women? 🤔

Or parents?

No parents . I can't blooming alter the error in the post it isn't letting me edit it .sorry

Even then as long as you are doing work that can be described as computer and/or admin work and you don't have any business visitors they aren't interested.

So a solicitor, barrister, administrator, online tutor, or IT person working at home is no interest to them. However an artist or chiropractor will be so they can't use standard insurance.

Because I am fed up of all the comments saying that anyone who doesn't want to go into the office intends to have small children crawling around while they work.

The issues go way beyond that!

It would be really helpful if people would read the thread.